Modernist literature

Comments (0)

Transcript of Modernist literature

ModernismCharacteristics:Use of simple vocabulary.Dislocation of grammar and punctuation.Work subordinated to technique.Vision and viewpoint were essential.The way was as important as the story itself.His work:"The red Wheelbarrow" 1923 (Everyday beauty)"The Young Housewife" 1917"Beat" early 1950s"Dr. Paterson" (autobiography)William Carlos Williams 1883 - 1963His work:Books:"Harmonium" ( 1931), "Ideas of Order" (1935), "Parts of a World" (1942). Poetry:"Sunday Morning", "Peter Quince at the Clavier", "The Emperor of Ice-cream", "Thirteen Ways of looking at a Blackbird", "Idea of order at Key West"Wallace Stevens 1879 - 1955Relevant works:"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" 1923

Though his poetry was accessible and universal in this poem, he would use the snowy evening to suggest the not entirely unwelcome approach of death.Robert Frost 1874 - 1963Relevant works:"The Sacred Wood" In that book he tried to express emotion through a chain of events."The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock"In that poem he uses 'coffee spoons' to reflect a humdrum existence and a wasted lifetime."The Waste Land"In that book he echoes Dante's Inferno to evoke London's thronged streets around the time of WWI."Gerontion", "Hollow men", "Ash-Wednesday", "Four Quartets"Ezra Pound1885 - 1972Relevant works:"A few don'ts of an Imagiste" 1913In this book he says: "Image...presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time."Des imagistes" Pound's anthology of 10 poets 1914In this anthology he presents examples of Imagist poetry."De Cantos" his life-workT. S. Eliot 1888 - 1965POETRY 1914 - 1945: EXPERIMENTS IN FORMBETWEEN THE WARSThis southern literary school rejected "northern" urban, commercial values, which they felt had taken over America. They called for a return to land and to American traditions that could be found in the South.The FugitivesHis works:He published numerous black anthologies, and began black theater groups.He wrote effective journalism, creating the character Jesse B. Semple ("Simple"), to express social commentary.His most beloved poem "The Negro Speaks of Riveers" 1921, 1925 (African culture will endure and deepen).Langston Hughes 1902 - 1967Her works:"Poetry" in which she hopes for poets who can produce "imaginary gardens with real toads in them."It also expressed her idea that meter, or anything else that claims the exclusive title "poetry", is not as important as delight in language and precise, heartfelt expression in any form.His works:"The Bridge" 1930, inspired by the Brooklyn Bridge. "Voyages" 1923, 1926, and "At Melville's Tomb" 1926: short poems in luscious - overheated style.Hart Crane 1899 - 1932His works:"In Just" 1920: invites the reader fill in the missing ideas.Edward Estlin Cummings 1894 - 1962His works:"Tamar" 1924"Roan Stallion" 1925."The Tower Beyond Tragedy" 1924."Aeschylus's Agamemnon" 1946 (re-creation)"Medea" 1946 (re-creation of the tragedy by Euripides)Robinson Jeffers 1887 - 1962Marianne Moore 1887 - 1972Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_MoorePROSE WRITING 1914-1945: AMERICAN REALISMHis works:He captured the glittering desperate life of the 1920s."This Side of Paradise" 1920, best-seller."The Great Gatsby" 1925."Tender is the Night" 1934."Flappers and Philosophers" 1920."The Beautiful and The Damned" 1922.F. Scott Fitzgerald 1896 - 1940"The Great Gatsby" 1925The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttom1922His works:His best novels:"The Sun Also Rises" 1926"The Old man and The Sea" 1952"A Farewell to Arms" 1929"For Whom the Bell Tolls" 1940Ernest Hemingway 1899 - 1961"For Whom the Bell tolls"Film: 1943Actors: Ingrid Bergman and Gary CooperHis works:His best novels are:"The Sound of the Fury" 1929"As I Lay Dying" 1930"Light in August" 1932"Absalom, Absalom!" He also wrote: "The Hamlet" 1940, "The Town" 1957, and "The Mansion" 1959.William Faulkner 1897 - 1962Themes: southern tradition, family, community, the land, history and the past, race, ambition and love.NOVELS OF SOCIAL AWARENESSHis best know work is the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Grapes of Wrath" 1939."Tortilla flat" 1935"Of Mice and Men" 1937"Cannery Row" 1945"East of Eden" 1952Steinbeck combines realism with a primitive romanticism that finds virtue in poor farmers who live close to the land.John Steinbeck 1902 - 1968His works:Dos Passos developed and experimental collage technique for his masterwork U.S.A. trilogy" 1919" 1932"The 42nd Parallel" 1930"The Big Money" 1936He exposed the moral corruption of materialistic American society through the lives of the characters.John Dos Passos 1896 - 1970His works:"Main Street" 1920 (satirized monotonous, hypocritical small-town life in Gofer Prairie, Minnesota)"Arrowsmith" 1925 (he won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel, but he rejected it)"Babbit" 1922"Elmer Gantry" 1927"Cass Timberlane" 1945Sinclair Lewis 1885 - 1951THE HARLEM RENAISSANCEHer works:Her most important work: "Their Eyes Were Watching God" 1937."Dust Tracks on a Road" 1942, biography.Her writing sparkles with colorful language and comic - or tragic- stories from the African-American oral tradition.Zora Neale Hurston 1903 - 1960His works:"Black Boy" 1945 autobiography."Uncle Tom's Children" 1938, book of short stories."Native Son" 1940, in which Bigger Thomas, a black character is portrayed as a murderer. This caused several critics among some African-Americans.Richard Wright 1908 - 1960LITERARY CURRENTS: THE FUGITIVES AND NEW CRITICISM20TH CENTURY AMERICAN DRAMAHis works:"Cane" 1923, it is ambitious and innovative. It is about an African-American who strggles to discover himself within and beyond the black communities in rural Georgia, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, Illinois, and as a black teacher in the South.Jean Toomer 1894 - 1967Robert Penn WarrenAllen TateJohn Crowe RansomHis works:The best-known play was "Waiting for Lefty" 1935.He also is author of "Awake and Sing!", and "Golden Boy". Both of them became popular success.Clifford Odets 1906 - 1963His works:This author is known for his plays "Our Town" 1938, "The Skin of Our Teeth" 1942, and for his novel "The Bride of San Luis Rey 1927.Thornton Wilder 1897 - 1975His works:He is the great figure of America theater.He redefined the theater by abandoning traditional divisions into acts and scenes.In his plays there are masks, Shakespearean monologues, and Greek choruses, even special effects."Desire Under the Elms" 1924."The Great God Bronw" 1926."Strange Interlude" 1928.His masterpieces "The Iceman Cometh" 1946, and " Long day's Journey Into Night" 1956.Eugene O'Neil 1888 - 1953